ROAST PIG.

Strew fine salt over it an hour before it is put down.  It should not be cut entirely open; fill it up plump with thick slices of buttered bread, salt, sweet-marjoram and sage.  Spit it with the head next the point of the spit; take off the joints of the leg, and boil them with the liver, with a little whole pepper, allspice, and salt, for gravy sauce.  The upper part of the legs must be braced down with skewers.  Shake on flour.  Put a little water in the dripping-pan, and stir it often.  When the eyes drop out, the pig is half done.  When it is nearly done, baste it with butter.  Cut off the head, split it open between the eyes.  Take out the brains, and chop them fine with the liver and some sweet-marjoram and sage; put this into melted butter, and when it has boiled a few minutes, add it to the gravy in the dripping-pan.  When your pig is cut open, lay it with the back to the edge of the dish; half a head to be placed at each end.  A good sized pig needs to be roasted three hours.

SAUSAGES.

Three tea-spoons of powdered sage, one and a half of salt, and one of pepper, to a pound of meat, is good seasoning for sausages.

MINCE MEAT.

There is a great difference in preparing mince meat.  Some make it a coarse, unsavory dish; and others make it nice and palatable.  No economical house-keeper will despise it; for broken bits of meat and vegetables cannot so well be disposed of in any other way.  If you wish to have it nice, mash your vegetables fine, and chop your meat very fine.  Warm it with what remains of sweet gravy, or roast-meat drippings, you may happen to have.  Two or three apples, pared, cored, sliced, and fried, to mix with it, is an improvement.  Some like a little sifted sage sprinkled in.

It is generally considered nicer to chop your meat fine, warm it in gravy, season it, and lay it upon a large slice of toasted bread to be brought upon the table without being mixed with potatoes; but if you have cold vegetables, use them.

BEANS AND PEAS.

Baked beans are a very simple dish, yet few cook them well.  They should be put in cold water, and hung over the fire, the night before they are baked.  In the morning, they should be put in a colander, and rinsed two or three times; then again placed in a kettle, with the pork you intend to bake, covered with water, and kept scalding hot, an hour or more.  A pound of pork is quite enough for a quart of beans, and that is a large dinner for a common family.  The rind of the pork should be slashed.  Pieces of pork alternately fat and lean, are the most suitable; the cheeks are the best.  A little pepper sprinkled among the beans, when they are placed in the bean-pot, will render them less unhealthy.  They should be just covered with water, when put into the oven; and the pork should be sunk a little below the surface of the beans.  Bake three or four hours.